For the past two decades, there has been a rapid geographical shift in the global market for two wheeled automobiles such as motorcycles, scooters and mopeds towards Asia-Pacific region. Developing nations in Asia and Latin America such as India, Brazil and Indonesia currently face an exponentially rising demand for two wheelers. Two wheelers are perceived as essential, affordable and quick media of transportation by the consumers in these countries. Consequently, the manufacturing of two wheelers has also been concentrated to these regions by multinational and local Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Given the aesthetic requirements of design, the shapes of bike parts in particular the fuel tanks have complex three dimensional contours for different models of same or different manufacturers. Bike graphics are considered aesthetically critical and hence there has been increasing focus on flawless application of these decals on the production line.
Adhering decals on these 3D surfaces is a complex and a skill oriented manual task at all OEMs. Extremely accurate positioning of the decal and completely bubble-free, wrinkle-free application are all mandatory to meet the strict quality standards. Repeated trials are carried out to establish standard application procedures and to train the applicators.
Decal applicators are often contracted for short spans of time by OEMs, who leave upon expiry of their contracts. This result in increase of the time spent in training the newly hired applicators. Continuously changing design variants of decals for different models of bikes exacerbates the magnitude of above mentioned problems.
In view of the above discussion it may be realized that there exists a need to provide an improved system and method of automated application of the decals on the complex 3D surfaces without having bubbles or wrinkles.